This substantive collection of writings from New England intellectual, activist, preacher, labor organizer, and later Catholic convert Orestes Augustus Brownson (1803–76) spans his early theological and philosophical reflections of the late 1820s and his Transcendental phase of the 30s, and touches on Brownson's critical and highly creative output of the 40s. Though he later rejected many of the premises put forth here, after his conversion in 1844, Brownson's first writings remain relevant as the product of an exceptionally active, inquisitive, and gifted literary mind.